78 



HORTICULTURE 



July 28, 1906 



well by arranging the seasons in one garden, — a series 

 of gardens would be necessary and the greatest draw- 

 back would be that each garden would be practically 

 closed to view after its season. 



We have another suggestion — that of not arranging 

 plants in panoramic fashion, as in general bordet- gar- 

 dening — and shown in the accompanpng photograph of 

 part of the flower garden at Wellesley — but to take a 

 square as the easiest, or a circular formation, or any 

 other that fits the location, — some large, others small — 

 and have annuals, biennials, and perennials, as well as 

 bulbous plants represented. It would give the collector 

 and the specialist a great opportunity to keep species 

 and varieties together for observation and comparison. 

 The different sections of iris, commencing with the 

 earliest of the Germanica type; the Japanese latci, and 

 the autumn-flowering kinds, Susiana and iherica, 

 phloxes, early and late, pyrethrums, potentillas, peonies, 

 lilies, poppies, violets, asters (species), campanulas, 

 larkspurs, columbines, sunflowers, foxgloves, sweet Wil- 

 liams and penstemons. There is no reason why annuals 

 and otlier tender plants could not be used. Dahlias, 

 cannas, antirrhinums, seabiosas, zinnias, stocks, Chinese 

 asters, Shirley poppies, annual larkspurs, sweet peas in 

 separate colors, verbenas, cosmos, marigolds. Phlox 

 Drummondi, hollyhocks. Take a person of a botanical 

 turn and it will be seen how far this idea could be car- 

 ried, or at least in what direction. Such beds ceuld be 

 edged with ccrastium tomentosum, Centaurea nigra 

 var. aurea, Armeria maritinia, dwarf grasses, Enony- 

 mus radicans, box where hardy, dwarf phlox. 1 haven't 

 tried to exhaust the list. These are just a few as they 

 come to my mind. 



Horticulture in Boston 



I have recently spent three delightful weeks at Bos- 

 ton, and regret that a severe attack of bronchitis im- 

 pelled me to cut short my visit. The further chance to 

 meet my daughter in New York decided my move- 

 ments. Picking up my mail I find the National Nur- 

 seryman taking issue with HoiiTicuLxriiE on certain 

 ethics of landscape gardening which are '"in need c^ fur- 

 ther elucidation." 



There are no friends of mine n)oro delightful than 

 pedagogues. I never caught one adopting a supercil- 

 ious attitude toward me personally, unless he hap- 

 pened to be purse proud. 



But there are those who make a constant practice of 

 a supercilious attitude towards gardeners in their pub- 



lic writings, and who just as stubbornly pervert the 

 gardenesque. The editor of the National Nurseryman 

 cannot see how that attitude feathers the nest, nL-ither 

 can Horticulture. That is perfectly clear. 



It is not so clear how the Nurseryman can koop the 

 theory, design, and engineering branch of landscape 

 work apart from the material and j^lanting part, for 

 the first is a mere preparation for the last, and if mere- 

 ly theoretical, apt to be a miserable preparation and 

 impossible to carry out. The complaint is made that 

 "landscape architects," so called, experience the great- 

 est difficulties in securing competent men to execute 

 their plans. I quite believe it. .Competent gardeners 

 rarely if ever play second fiddle to such men, for it they 

 are competent to execute a plan — that is place it on the 

 ground — they are very likely indeed able to plot it on 

 paper. But exj)erienced gardeners know fully well 

 that many of the most charming places in the world 

 have been formed without the intervention of any pa- 

 per plan. I have in mind a charming and simple piece 

 of work of Downing's within a mile or two of where I 

 write, and when he was asked about the road plan he 

 held up his violin, and said "lie would make it like the 

 body of his old fiddle." It exists in this form today, 

 and I cannot conceive that he found a plan necessary 

 for the planting consists mainly of white pine, Norway 

 spruce, arbor-vitae, elm, and maple. Given the requis- 

 ite "engineering" which any competent gardener can 

 compass, the completion of the buildings which may 

 or may not be essential to guide him, and depend upon 

 it there are a great many gardeners fully competent to 

 execute the planting, and embellish the "engineering" 

 so thoroughly and completely that it will sink into the 

 obscurity liefitting it. 



All this "implies (as the Nurseryman remarks) a 

 knowledge of the adaptations of plants, and the pecu- 

 liarities of soil and climate, directly in the field of the 

 gardener," rarelv or never in that of the architect. 



In conclusion, search the history of gardening 

 througli and through, and tell me if you can find 

 an aiThitec-t or pedagogue of them all who ever origi- 

 ■nuted a garden fashion, or moulded a garden idea. 



They are eommonlv mere garden "phones" used to 

 i'X])ress gardeners' ideas in more or less academical and 

 delightful langiuige. No man among them ever did 

 sucJi work as Gibson did for sub-tropical gardening, as 

 Ingram did for the spring garden, as Paxton did for 

 horticulture in general, or to come nearer home, as 

 Harris did at Wellesley. 



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Convention Number August i8. Watch It. 



